Ben-Gurion's spy - Shabtai Teveth

In the early 1950s, a group of ill-trained Israeli agents staged a series of disaterous bombings of American and British institutions in Egypt, in an attempt to forestall Britain's final withdrawal drom the Suez. When the plot was revealed in 1955, defense minister Pinhas Lavon - Ben Gurion's handpicked sucessor - was foreced to resign.;Drawing upon uncovered classified documents and interviews with key players, this text recounts the Lavon affair in Israel in 1963. It tells how the affair, which toppled the governemnt of David Ben-Gurion, the nation's founding father, rocked the corridors of power in Israel. It asks questions such as: who gave the orders for the sabotage attempts? was it Lavon? or was it the Director of Military Intelligence, Benyamin Givli?;The text examines how the affair shattered Israel's self-image as an ethical society building a new nation on ancient religious principles. It considers how the event helped to plant the seeds for the feared Israeli secret service, Mossad, and for the shift in defense policy from restraint to violent retribution that marked the Begin era.